


Birds of a Feather

by Riddle_of_the_sphinx



Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: Birds, Canon-Typical Violence, Co-Workers to Friends to Lovers, Dorks in Love, Doves, Falling In Love, Fluff, He will figure it out eventually, M/M, Medic loves birds, Scout doesn't know what to do about his feelings, Scout grows to like birds, TF2 catcher's companion, Walks In The Woods, how scout got the catcher's companion, this story is what happens when tf2 cosmetics give me story ideas
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:28:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 22,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27185188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Riddle_of_the_sphinx/pseuds/Riddle_of_the_sphinx
Summary: When Scout finds an injured bird on the battlefield he can’t bring himself to leave it behind. With that said he has no idea how to care for an injured bird. However, Medic knows how to care for birds. Medic is the last person he wants to go to for anything, but for the sake of the bird he sucks it up and goes to the Medic for help. He expects his time with the Medic to be rather unpleasant, so he is rather surprised that his time with the Medic ends up being rather nice. As the bird slowly heals Scout finds himself becoming closer to the Medic, and their blossoming friendship slowly starts to evolve into something more….Basically, this story came about when I saw the Catcher’s Companion cosmetic item, and instantly thought “I could write a story based off of that.”
Relationships: Medic/Scout (Team Fortress 2)
Comments: 40
Kudos: 92





	1. Helping a broken bird

Scout didn’t typically think much about birds. It’s not that he hated them or anything he just never really thought much about them. They were always just something that existed in the background. At most he enjoyed their singing on occasion, but that was pretty much the extant of it. He certainly never thought of having one as a pet. He was always more of a dog person. Not that it really mattered. Growing up his family couldn’t afford to have a pet. Heck, his Ma could barely afford to feed eight growing boys never mind trying to take care of any pet be they a dog or a bird. At any rate he just never thought much about birds.

Of course that all changed when he met the Medic. That man loved birds almost as much as he loved preforming experiments on whatever unlucky sucker that ended up on his surgery table. The man basically had a small army of doves at his command. With that said even once he met the Medic and his army of doves Scout still didn’t think much about birds. Of course that all changed when he ended up accidentally getting one of Medic’s doves trapped in his chest. That was one of the worst moments of Scout’s life. Having a bird have a mini panic attack in his rib cage was hell on earth. He could feel the bird’s wings brushing up against his organs, and he could feel the bird bashing himself against Scout's chest to try and escape. To say that it felt unpleasant would be massively understating just how painful it felt. It couldn’t have been much fun for the bird either being stuck in a dark place unable to get out, but honestly Scout’s sympathy for the bird was rather limited. If the bird hadn’t jumped into his chest during the ÜberCharge heart surgery, he wouldn’t have ended up in that position in the first place.

Thankfully, the second Scout figured out he had a freaking bird trapped in his body he had turned right around, and got Medic to get the bird out of him. Medic was able to get his beloved bird out of Scout without too many issues, and the bird went on with his life happy as ever. However, Scout walked away from the situation swearing that he never wanted to go near Medic’s freaking birds again. Suddenly birds went from something he never thought about to something that only brought up a rather unfortunate memory. These days just looking at Medic’s bird Archimedes caused Scout’s chest to ache just a little in memory of that moment.

After that day Scout only went to Medic’s infirmary if he absolutely had to, and he took to avoiding the man’s doves like the plague. If Medic ever notice that Scout sort of stayed clear of his infirmary the man never mentioned it. It was not like they interacted enough for Medic to really bring it up much anyway. Engineer definitely noticed, but that was only because Scout started going to him to use the dispenser that he had set up in his workshop for any injury that Scout had decided wasn’t serious enough to go near Medic’s freaking birds for. 

“You know Medic would probably be willing to take care of those injuries,” Engineer would always say whenever he saw Scout use his dispenser. 

Scout would always brush the comment off with some sort of excuse. Either by saying the Medic wasn’t in his infirmary at the moment, or the man was in a foul mood and Scout knew better then to mess with a ticking time bomb.

His favorite excuse was “Medic was doing some freaky experiment, and I wasn’t about to mess with that.”

Engineer never questioned him when he tossed that excuse out because nine times out of ten the Medic was doing some weird experiment. Honestly, that was another reason why Scout typically avoided the infirmary. He was grateful for all of the healing that Medic did on the battlefield, but that didn’t mean he was willing to have a bunch of animal organs shoved into his body. Why Heavy seemed perfectly willing to let Medic do so Scout would never know. When Medic wasn’t placing animal organs in people he was usually doing some sort of experiment that reminded Scout a bit too much of the mad scientists that he had seen in some horror movies. That stuff had always made Scout a little weary about dealing with Medic, or going to his infirmary. 

The incident with his bird just ended up pushing Scout over the line, and made him think _‘Yeah, I am not dealing with that.’_

Ultimately, it was a bird that ended up causing Scout to mostly avoid Medic when they were off of the battlefield. 

Ironically, it was a bird that would end up forcing Scout to actually interact with the man which ultimately ended up changing their relationship in ways that Scout never expected…. 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The day that Scout’s world would suddenly change rather drastically had actually started pretty great. Engineer had made pancakes that morning for breakfast which was a pretty great way to start a morning if you were to ask Scout. Better yet that day’s battle was taking place on Scout’s favorite battlefield. 

They were fighting at Landfall. 

Scout couldn’t help but be excited every time that the team was shipped out to the base that was located in the middle of the woods. He knew that most of his team were either neutral to the place at best, or they absolutely hated it there. Engineer hated the place.

“It’s way too out in the open.” Engineer would always complain. “There are way too many places for the darn BLU Spy to slip in and sap my buildings.”

There were others who hated the area for other reasons. The base that was near Landfall and the other forested battlefields like the Sawmill area was pretty much located smackdab in the middle of nowhere. It was pretty far away from any sort of civilization which made getting supplies a bit of a hassle. Demoman hated how far away it was from any sort of establishment that could give him alcohol to the point that whenever they are told they are moving to the base near Landfall the Scottish man would start stockpiling alcohol just to prepare himself. Spy hated how much of a pain it was to drive so far out to get the weekly supplies, and he wasn’t much of a great outdoors sort of guy so being out in the middle of the woods wasn’t very appealing to him. 

Scout was pretty sure the only person on his team who really liked it out there was Sniper, and that was because there were no people out there and there were a ton of different animals living in the area. For an outdoorsy guy like him the woods were probably a small slice of heaven. Truthfully, Scout probably should have hated the place as much as most of his team did. He was born and raised in the city. It was all he knew, and honestly he never really left the city until he became a mercenary. Being out in the middle of the woods away from any sort of civilization should have been absolute misery for him. 

Yet, against all odds Scout loved being out there in the woods. 

The weather there was almost always perfect. It wasn’t too hot, and yet at the same time it wasn’t too cold. There was always a gentle breeze blowing, and the sky overhead was almost always a bright blue and filled with white fluffy clouds. Compared to the freezing cold of Coldfront, and the unbearable heat of almost all of the battlefields in New Mexico the weather there at the woods was paradise. Even the nights there were pleasant. At night it was always stuck at the perfect temperature where it was not too hot, or too cold. Sometimes he would stand outside and just stare up at the starry sky overhead. When they were out here there were no city lights to block out the shimming stars above. 

The place was even better during the early morning when Scout would go out for his morning run. It was peaceful out there in the woods with the only sounds to be hear was the chirping of birds, and the wind rustling the leaves in the trees. He loved the city and all the noises that came with it, but he liked the peace that the forest seemed to have. He liked being able to just cut loss and run like a maniac without any worries of anyone thinking he was crazy, or had just done something wrong. He liked that when he ran all he could hear was his own footfalls, and the sound of nature all around him. 

Even better when he was out there in the woods he was really able to really push himself to his limits. He would weave through the trees ducking under the low hanging branches. He would leap over stray roots, and if he was feeling really energized that day he would climb the tress, and jump from one branch to another branch. His whole job demanded more from him then just bashing in heads and running real fast. His job required him to be good at navigating any terrain that he could possibly come across. He had to be able to climb and jump any obstacle that he came across to get to his objective. So climbing the tress, jumping from one tree to the next, and dodging stray roots and bushes were all great ways to train his skills. 

As for Landfall itself that place was like one giant playground to Scout. It was the perfect place to put his training to actual use. There were so many buildings to duck into to hide from the enemy BLU Team. The bridges that were overhead were perfect for jumping off of. Scout had long lost count of how many times he had jumped off of the bridges to smack an unsuspecting BLU in the head with one of his trusty baseball bats. The battlefield was huge, so there was plenty of space for him to zip around. He had even managed to get pretty good at climbing up to the rooftops of the buildings there at Landfall.

When he was up there almost no one could touch him. The BLU Heavy and the BLU Medic couldn’t follow him up there. For all of the BLU Spy’s tricks he didn’t have the ability or skill to hop from rooftop to rooftop the way that Scout could. The BLU Demoman and Soldier could follow him up there, but there was so much empty space up on the rooftops that Scout found it easy to doge their attacks. The BLU Scout could also reach the rooftops, but he wasn’t as good as getting up there as the RED Scout was. The BLU Pyro could also get up to the roofs if he used his Thermal Thruster at the right place, but the BLU Pyro rarely used the Thermal Thruster so usually it wasn't even an issue. Quite frankly once the RED Scout had reached the rooftops with the Intelligence he was home free. It was for all of these reasons that Scout considered Landfall the perfect battlefield for him. When he was fighting at Landfall he always did exceptionally well, and having a fight there almost always meant that he was going to have a good day. 

Today was another one of those good days at Landfall. Scout was a blur racing across the battlefield bashing in the heads of anyone who got near him. No one could touch him. If anyone tried to even aim at him Scout was able to easily duck into a building, or leap off of the many bridges that connected the different buildings together. He was able to climb up to the rooftops where no Heavy or Spy could follow him. There were a few classes that tried to follow him up to the rooftops, but at least on that day Scout was able to blast anyone who tried to follow him up to the rooftops. His only worries on that day were the BLU Engineer’s sentries.

Luckily, Spy and Demoman were at the top of their game that day because the BLU’s sentries were always sapped or blasted to smithereens by the time Scout raced in to grab the Intelligence. In fact, the whole RED team must have been on top of their game that day because they had snatched two of the three Intelligence briefcases before the three-minute mark had passed. The third and last case was proving to be just as easy to grab. By the time Scout had raced in to grab the last briefcase Spy had just placed a sapper on the BLU’s sentry. 

“Spy's sappin' my Sentry!" Scout heard the BLU Engineer yell out as he tried to find the invisible Spy. 

He was so busy looking for Spy and dealing with his Sentry that he didn’t even notice Scout running in behind him. A couple of smacks against the head with Scout’s trusty Boston Basher bat made sure that the man would regret not paying more attention. 

“Lotta good that hardhat did ya!" Scout taunted as he watched the BLU Engineer’s body fall to the ground.

With the BLU Engineer dead Scout was able to walk up to the BLU Intelligence and pick it up without any issues. Of course right when he got the Intelligence the BLU Heavy walked out of the BLU Respawn Room. Even worse he had the BLU Medic with him.

“Ah, shoot.” Scout muttered. He did not want to stick around for that nasty combo. 

The deadly duo spotted him pretty quickly, and the Heavy immediately started shooting at him. Scout didn’t stick around to let any of the bullets hit him.

 _‘Get to the rooftops,’_ He thought as he ran. _‘They can’t follow you on the rooftops._ ’

It didn’t take much to get to the rooftops. A little bit of double jumping at the right places, and he was able to haul himself up onto the roof of the closest tall building. As he pulled himself up onto the roof he heard the pained death wails of the Medic and Heavy. It was a sort of yell that he heard people let out when they got a well-placed backstab from a Spy. Not surprising really. Spy must have stuck around after he sapped the sentry to stab the Engineer in the back, but Scout killed the guy before he could. Scout didn’t let the death of the BLU Heavy and Medic slow him down. He could hear the shouting of the other BLU team members as they tried to hunt him down.

He could also hear his own teammates let out battle cries of their own as they met the BLU team head on. His own team could stall them a little while Scout made his way back to their side of the field. Even with his team backing him up he didn’t slow down. He kept running until he reached the rooftop of the building that overlooked the RED Respawn building. From his place on the rooftop he could see his team’s Engineer guarding their own Intelligence. Scout smirked a bit upon seeing it.

“Shortest battle ever,” He muttered to himself. 

Honestly, they probably broke some sort of record for the quickest battle ever won. Scout was about to jump down from the rooftop, but he froze when he heard something nearby.

It sounded like a bird chirping.

Normally, not a big deal. There were tons of birds in this forest, and after so many battles had happened here it seemed like a good chunk of the bird population in the area had gotten used to the sound of gunfire and yelling. They sang their songs regardless of if there was a battle going on or not. Normally, Scout would have ignored the chirping but he couldn’t ignore it this time. This chirping noise was no birdsong. It was frantic sounding like the bird was in distress somehow. It also sounded like it was incredibly close. Scout looked around him only to eventually spot the source of the noise. There lying at the edge of the roof farthest away from him was a little red bird. It was flapping its one wing frantically, but it wasn’t really getting anywhere. It kicked one of its little legs in the air as it cried out over and over again. It almost sounded like it was crying for help.

How Scout hadn’t noticed it earlier was a mystery. He must have been so caught up on getting back to their base that he ran right past it. Scout slowly approached the bird only to freeze when the bird suddenly stopped its struggling only to stare up at Scout. Scout could only stare right back at it. Now that he was able to get a real good look at it he could tell that it was a cardinal. Scout was no bird expert, but cardinals were distinctive enough that he could identify it. Its left wing was clearly broken. The fact that it was still twitching its right leg while refusing to move its left leg seemed to imply that there was something wrong with its left leg too.

Scout wasn’t really sure what the hell could have happened to the poor thing. Maybe he got accidently hit by a passing Soldier when he was rocket jumping by. Maybe he got smacked by a passing weapon when it got too close to the battle. Heck, for all Scout knew maybe it was just a really klutzy bird that smacked into a nearby tree, and landed here on the roof. There was really no way of knowing. It was not like the bird could tell him its life story or anything. All Scout knew was one simple fact. 

If he left the bird there it would probably die. 

Scout frowned a bit at that thought. He couldn’t leave the poor thing there. With that said he really didn’t know what he could do to help it. At the very lest he couldn’t just sit there on the roof all day with it. He would take it to the Respawn Room, and hopefully figure something out once they got there. Scout knelt down and carefully scooped the bird up. As he picked the bird up he heard it let out a tiny sound of distress.

“I’m sorry,” Scout murmured. “I know this ain’t fun for you, buddy. I’m trying to be careful with you here.”

He wasn’t even sure why he was apologizing to it. It’s not like the bird could understand him. Still, he couldn’t stop himself from doing so anyway. Once Scout had the bird in hand it settled down a bit. It made no noise as it just sat there in his hand. The fact that it wasn’t putting up a fight was surprising. The optimistic part of Scout hoped that some part of the bird knew that Scout wanted to help it. The more negative part of his brain thought maybe the bird thought this was the end, and it figured there was no point in fighting the inevitable. Scout shook that rather dark thought away as he started to make his way down to the ground. The whole time he moved he was being careful to not jostle the bird too much. 

Upon getting to ground level he heard Engineer call out “Scout! Back with the Intelligence already, huh?” 

Any other time Scout would have made some smartass comment to that, but all of his attention was focused on his little bird companion. Scout dropped the Intelligence down onto the ground next to their own Intelligence.

He didn’t even look back at it or the Engineer when he heard the announcer call out “Victory!”

He just kept his eyes glued onto the bird as he entered the Respawn Room. Upon entering the room he sat down on a nearby bench, and stared at the bird that was sitting there in his cupped hands. 

_‘Alright,’_ Scout thought. _‘I got the bird here. Now what?’_

Scout really didn’t know what to do now. He sure as hell didn’t know how to treat bird injuries. Hell, he didn’t know to treat the broken bones of a person much less a bird. There wasn’t anything he could do to help the bird. With that said someone on the team probably knew how to help the bird. Upon thinking that only one name leapt into Scout’s head. 

Medic. 

Medic would know how to help the bird. The man owned a small army of dove that he absolutely adored. The man probably made sure to learn everything he possibly could about bird medical care just to make sure that he could care for his doves should anything happen to them. Heck, for all Scout knew he might be able to use the Medi-Gun on the bird. If that was the case the bird could be healed, and then released in a matter of seconds. He was pretty sure the Doc would help him. Regardless of what he might of thought of Scout the man wouldn’t let a bird suffer. Of that Scout was certain of. 

Feeling a bit more confident now that he had a plan Scout sat there, and waited for the Medic to walk through the door. Of course as he sat there he was all too aware of the fact that he was probably going to be there for a while. The Humiliation Round was going on right now, and Medic almost always participated in the Humiliation Round. Scout was at least somewhat convinced that the man participated in the Humiliation Round to get revenge on the BLU team for gunning for him so much. Medic was sort of number one on the list of people you wanted to take down as quickly as possible. His ability to heal everyone, and ÜberCharge them made him too dangerous for the enemy to allow to run around. Of course Medic usually had Heavy, or someone else nearby that he was healing to help keep him safe. The man was also a rather fierce fighter so he sure as hell didn’t go down without a fight.

Still, great fighter or not that probably didn’t make being a major target any less annoying. Honestly, when it came to Medic’s enthusiasm for participating in the Humiliation Round Scout figured he couldn’t really judge him. Scout was just as enthusiastic about participating in the Humiliation Round, so he honestly had no right to judge anyone about it. If it wasn’t for the bird that he was holding he would probably be out there right now rubbing the RED’s victory into the BLU team’s faces. Scout sighed as he looked down at the little red bird that was lying in his hands. It was still staring up at him almost as if it was studying him. It still wasn’t freaking out although Scout didn’t question it. He was just thankful that it was remaining calm.

The sound of the Respawn Room door opening made Scout look up. He wasn’t surprised to see Engineer walk into the room with Spy following behind him. Those two rarely participated in the Humiliation Round. Engineer usually used the time to pack his buildings up, and Spy didn’t really care much for the Humiliation Round in general. They had shot Scout a few curious looks, but Scout said nothing as he shielded the bird from their view. He really didn’t want to explain why he was carrying a cardinal around yet.

They were probably wondering why Scout wasn’t out there participating in the Humiliation Round, but either they didn’t care that much or they wanted to pack their stuff up first before they asked because they didn’t bother saying anything to Scout. They just walked over to their lockers, and started to put their weapons away. Sniper ended up walking in a minute or so later with Pyro happily skipping in right behind him. A minute or so after that Soldier came marching into the room with a grin on his face with Demoman by his side. A minute after that the Announcer finally called an end to the Humiliation Round. The second the round ended Medic and Heavy walked into the room. Medic had a grin on his face as he held his Crusader's Crossbow in hand.

As they walked past Scout the runner heard Heavy say “Docktor’s aim with the crossbow is getting better and better.”

“Indeed,” The Medic agreed. “The Humiliation Round gives me a good chance to practice on moving targets. I don’t think I’ll ever be on Sniper’s level of shooting, but I like to think I am getting rather close.” 

The grin on the Medic’s face made it very clear that the man rather enjoyed using the BLU team for target practice.

 _‘Sometimes I am really glad that I’m on the same team as him,’_ Scout thought as a small shiver passed down his spine. 

He pushed that thought away as he watched Medic open his locker, and put away his Crusader’s Crossbow and Ubersaw. The second he had put those two weapons away Scout was up on his feet, and making a beeline straight toward the doctor. 

“Uh, Doc?” Scout called out as he approached the man.

Medic let out a soft sigh as he turned to look at Scout.

“Ja? What is it Scout? Are you injured?”

Scout hesitated for a moment, but eventually he said “Well, I’m not injured but I do have something I want you to heal.” 

Medic shot him a confused look upon hearing that. Instead of verbally explaining Scout just moved his one hand away so that Medic could get a good look at the injured bird that he was holding. Medic’s eyes widened a bit in surprise upon seeing the small bird in the Scout’s hand. 

“Can you help it?” Scout asked. 

“Follow me,” Was Medic’s response. 

The man walked toward the exit of the Respawn Room that led to the dirt road that would take them to the base. The RED’s base in this area was within walking distance of the Landfall battlefield. Scout hesitated for a second, but eventually he followed the man.

Upon stepping outside Medic asked “Where did you find it?” 

“Uh, on the roof of the building that is across from the Respawn Building. It was lying on the roof flapping around trying to move, but it wasn’t getting anywhere. I think its wing and leg are broken.”

Medic let out a small sound of acknowledgement, but said nothing as he kept walking along. Scout followed behind him silently. If the man was thinking of ways to help the bird Scout sure didn’t want to interrupt his thinking by saying anything. When they reached the base Medic flung the doors open, and started walking down the hall that would take them right to the infirmary. Scout couldn’t help but mentally sigh at that. When he decided to go to Medic to help he figured chances were high that he would have to go into the infirmary. He wasn’t looking forward to it, but he would suck it up.

Upon reaching the infirmary and stepping inside Scout could instantly hear the flapping of wings, and the cooing of doves. Scout frowned a little as he looked up at the doves that were staring down at him. He couldn’t help but try to find Archimedes. It couldn’t be hard to spot the bird. He was a bit bigger then Medic’s other doves, and his white feathers were usually stained red with blood.

“Scout, place the bird here.” Scout heard Medic call out. 

Scout looked over at the man only to mentally sigh when he spotted Archimedes perched on his shoulder. Honestly, he should have expected the bird to immediately park himself on Medic’s shoulder. Scout does his best to ignore the dove for now as he looked over at the place where Medic wanted him to place the bird. 

“You want me to place it on the x-ray table?” 

“Yes,” Medic said. “I need to take some x-rays to see what sort of damage that I am dealing with here.”

The man paused for a moment before he said “Also, the cardinal is a male.”

“How do you know?” Scout asked as he approached the table.

“Male cardinals have the bright red feathers all over. Female cardinals are a pale brown color although the feathers on their wings, tails, and crest are typically tinged red.”

Well, Scout could file that under useless facts that he now knew. At least he knew for sure that the bird was a boy.

“You can’t just use the Medi-Gun on him?” Scout asked as he very carefully placed the bird down on the table. 

The cardinal was relatively calm while Scout did this, but the second Scout moved his hands away from it and took a step away from the bird it started frantically chirping. It almost seemed like the bird was a bit distressed that Scout was leaving it. The frantic chirping was quickly met with a chorus of loud cooing coming from the doves that were gathered up in the room. Scout couldn’t help but winch a bit at the noise. It was incredibly loud. It also reminded him a bit too much of the frantic cooing that Archimedes has done when he had been stuck in Scout’s chest. His chest already ached slightly from the memory of it all. Thankfully, after a minute or so had passed the doves calmed down. The cardinal had also calmed down somewhat, but Scout still heard him let out an occasional chirp.

“Interesting,” Medic murmured.

“What’s interesting?” Scout asked.

“Nothing,” Medic said as he set up the x-ray machine.

Scout frowned a bit upon hearing that. That was a pretty clear dismissal of his question if he ever heard one.

Scout was about insist that Medic explain, but before he could Medic quickly said “Anyway, I am not using the Medi-Gun on him because it isn’t as affective on birds. I’ve been meaning to come up with a way to make a Medi-Gun that is just as effective on birds, but I never can find the time to get around to it. There are so many experiments that I have to run not to mention all of the battles we have. When I’m not busy with those things I’m either preforming maintenance on my equipment, or caring for my birds.”

The man sighed as he said “There is just never enough time in the day. One of these I’m going to invent something that will make it so that the human body doesn’t need sleep to function, or at least need a lot less sleep. That would really help give me more hours in the day to work with.” 

“Wha-“

“Anyway!” The Medic chirped out before Scout could even finish saying a single world. “I have a question for you now.”

“Yeah? What’s that?”

“Why did you help the bird, and better yet why did you bring it to me?”

“Is there a reason why I shouldn’t have helped it?” Scout asked. 

He really didn’t understand this line of questioning.

“No, I think helping it like you did would be what most would call a good deed. I suppose I’m just surprised is all. You don’t seem to like birds much if at all.”

“What makes you say that?”

“You think I don’t notice the fact that you avoid my infirmary like the plague?” Medic questioned. “You don’t think Engineer tells me about how you always go to him to use his dispenser to heal any of your injuries rather than come to infirmary for help?”

The man paused for a moment as he stepped away from the x-ray, and grabbed a mobile x-ray barrier that he used sometimes when he took an x-ray of the mercenaries. He yanked Scout behind the barrier with him without a word, and promptly started taking the x-rays.

As he worked he said “I know the infirmary was never your favorite place, but you never hesitated to come here if you were injured. I didn’t miss the fact that you started avoiding this place after the incident with Archimedes.” 

Scout couldn’t help but mentally snort at that choice of words. The way he said it made it sound way less traumatic then what it had really been.

“That had been an awful time for my poor Archimedes. Trapped in the dark with no light, and no way to escape. I can’t imagine it was much more pleasant for you to feel a bird bumping into your guts. Archimedes even left a few cuts with this talons on your-“

“Yeah, can you please stop describing the incident? I was there for it I don’t need a play by play description of one of the worst days of my life.” 

Medic shrugged slightly upon hearing that. Apparently, he had finished doing the x-rays as well because he quickly pushed the screen back to its original place, and then motioned for Scout to follow him over to the x-ray machine. Scout did so without comment. The runner didn’t miss the fact that when he was standing near the machine again the cardinal stopped his occasional chirping only to fall silent. Medic raised a single brow at that, but didn’t say anything as he went about getting the x-rays scans. 

As the man worked he said “I suppose my point is I’m surprised that the incident didn’t end up giving you ornithophobia.” 

“Orni what now?”

“Ornithophobia,” The Medic repeated. “It means fear of birds.” 

The man tilted his head slightly to the side in thought as he said “Or did you just end up with a fear of doves? Or a fear of Archimedes? I noticed the weary look you gave him when you spotted him.”

The bird that was still perched on Medic’s shoulder let out a small coo upon hearing his name.

Scout just shot the bird a look as he said “Hey, I’m not afraid of any birds!”

“Perhaps not,” The Medic agreed. “If you truly had the phobia you would display more signs of fear. With that said it is clear that you aren’t exactly comfortable near them.”

“After having one freak out while trapped in my chest can you really blame me for being uncomfortable?”

Medic let out a small hum of thought upon hearing that question.

“I suppose I can’t,” The man said. “With that said can you blame me for being a bit surprised that you not only helped the bird, but came here to get it help when you are clearly uncomfortable with birds and with this place.” 

Scout supposed he couldn’t really blame Medic for being at least a bit surprised that Scout would walk right into this place. Scout wasn’t exactly subtle about how he avoided this place. He wasn’t afraid of any freaking birds that was for sure. However, just looking at Medic’s freaking doves made his chest ache a little. It was like feeling a phantom of the pain he had felt when he had a bird sealed inside his chest. It was an unpleasant enough feeling that Scout found it easier to avoid it altogether rather than actually deal with it. Scout sighed as he rubbed his hand over where his heart was.

 _‘Geez, this really isn’t what I wanted to deal with today,’_ Scout thought. 

He glanced down at the cardinal upon thinking of that. The bird only blinked a few times in response. Honestly, looking at the bird lying there was sort of a nice reminder that while this day wasn’t going that great it was going a lot better than the cardinal’s day was. The poor thing had a freaking broken wing and leg. Scout had broken his bones enough times to know how agonizingly painful they could be. If the bird could suck it up while being in such a scary situation, then Scout could deal with his unpleasant memories for an hour or so.

He looked away from the bird only to glance over at Medic. The man was ignoring Scout and staring at the x-rays that he stuck up on the board that he typically stuck his x-rays on. Scout only need to take one look at the x-rays to know that the bird’s wing and leg were definitely broken. It looked bad, but it must not have been awful because the Doc didn’t look worried. He did look rather thoughtful as he looked at the x-rays, but he didn’t seem worried. Scout was hoping that was a good sign. 

“Well?” Scout asked after a few minutes of silence had passed by.

“It’s a pretty bad break,” Medic said slowly. “The cardinal is lucky that you found him. There is no doubt in my mind that he would have died if you hadn’t found him.”

“So can you help him?” Scout asked. “Will he be able to fly again?”

“Of course I can help him,” Medic said. “Who do you think I am?” 

Okay, so maybe it was a stupid question to ask the Medic of all people.

“If I were a regular doctor or veterinarian I would say that bird would never be able to fly again.”

Medic paused for a moment as he looked over at Scout. 

The smirk on his face was downright smug as he said “Of course I’m no ordinary doctor.”

The arrogance was pretty strong there, but he wasn’t wrong. He was no ordinary doctor. He did the impossible almost every day. Only he could heal something that anyone else would have just said was a lost cause.

“I’ll have to perform some surgery, and then the bird will be stuck with casts for a while. After a couple of weeks, he should be healed up enough to be let go.” 

Medic immediately went over to a nearby cabinet, and popped it open. As he started digging through it he said “You don’t need to be here for the surgery. You can go now.”

“Uh, yeah sure.” Scout said he took a step away from the bird only to hear it let out some panicked chirping.

Medic paused for a moment when he heard that, and looked at him and the bird. Again he looked a bit thoughtful, but after a few seconds had passed by he went back to his searching. Scout just gave the bird a confused look. Again he couldn’t help but think it almost felt like the bird didn’t like seeing Scout move away from him. Maybe Scout was looking a bit too deep into it thinking that. Scout shook that thought away as he started to walk away from the bird all while trying his best to ignore the cardinal’s small cries.

When he reached the door he paused for a second. He never did end up answering Medic’s question about why he rescued the bird. Chances were he may not have been really looking for an answer. It seemed more like he was looking for an excuse to tease Scout over the fact that he avoided the infirmary because of a bunch of doves. Medic probably didn't really care about Scout's answer. Still, Scout figured it wouldn’t hurt to answer the question even if Medic didn’t really care about the answer.

“I couldn’t leave it there to suffer,” Scout said out loud. 

Medic paused what he was doing when he heard that, and looked over at Scout. he looked a bit surprised to hear Scout blurt such a thing out loud so suddenly like that. 

“What?” The German man said.

“I couldn’t leave it there to suffer,” Scout repeated. “It needed help, so I helped it. I couldn’t bring myself to just leave him there. Like the idea of doing so just made me feel bad, or whatever.”

Scout scratched the back of his head as he said “And as for why I went to you? Well, you’re the Medic. You can heal anything, and you know a lot about birds. If anyone could help him, it would be you.” 

“You didn’t think to ask Sniper about it first?” Medic asked. “He also knows how to care for birds.” 

That was probably true. Sniper did have an owl named Sir Hootsalot of all things. The man probably knew how to care for injured birds. Hell, he probably knew how to care for injured animals in general. The man seemed to know the most random facts when it came to animals. With that said Sniper wasn’t the one that popped into Scout’s head when it came to figuring out who could possibly help the little red bird.

“Sniper didn’t even pop into my head when I thought of who to for help,” Scout confessed. “You were the first person I thought of. I knew you could heal the bird, so why bother with anyone else?”

Medic stared at him for a moment after Scout said that. It felt like the man was studying him like he was some puzzle that needed solving. Scout couldn’t help but squirm a bit under the man’s rather intense gaze. It felt like he was staring right at Scout’s soul, or something. Eventually the serious look faded away as a slight smile appeared on Medic’s face. It was different from Medic's typical smiles. It was softer looking somehow. Scout couldn’t help but think he looked rather nice when he smiled that gentle almost sweet looking smile of his.

Scout couldn’t help but mentally pause upon thinking all of that about Medic’s smile of all things, but before he could even begin to ponder that he heard Medic say “You can go now.”

“Alright, see you later I guess.”

“But before you go there is one more thing I wanted to say.” The Medic’s strange soft smile remind in place as he said “Starting tomorrow if you ever want to come back and check on your cardinal I wouldn’t object to it. I think the cardinal would like it if you visited him."

“I’ll think about it,” Scout said quickly.

With those words spoken Scout quickly left the infirmary. As he quickly walked down the hall he was already mentally debating with himself over if he should take Medic’s offer or not.

_‘Medic is taking care of the bird now,_ ’ He thought. _‘I got it help. My job is done. I don't need to worry about it anymore. Besides, it’s a wild bird. How much could the bird really care if I visit him or not?’_

There really isn’t any real reason that required Scout to visit. With that said deep down Scout did want to check on the bird. He knew that Medic would take care of him, but Scout still wanted to make sure that he was okay. He still wanted to see that the bird was alright with his own eyes. Yet, doing so meant going back into the infirmary. He still didn’t feel comfortable around Medic’s doves. Archimedes still made him feel some sort of phantom pain in his chest, and that feeling didn’t go away until Scout had walked out of the infirmary, and put some distance between himself and that place. If he went to check on the cardinal that would mean dealing with that uncomfortable feeling again. He really didn’t want to deal with that.

At the same time the idea of not visiting the cardinal didn’t sit well with him. He had gone through all of the effort to get him to Medic. He wanted to make sure that the cardinal was recovering alright. Also, it really did seem like the bird didn’t like it when Scout wasn’t within his line of sight. Why Scout still didn’t know. All he did know was that while it sounded crazy it really did seem like the bird found some sort of comfort from his presence. By the time Scout reached his room his thoughts were a tangled mess. He still had no idea if he wanted to visit the bird or not.

“Whatever,” Scout mumbled as he took his hat and headset off. “Not like I can do anything about it today anyway.”

He tossed the hat and headset onto his bedside table, and promptly flopped down onto his bed. Medic would be preforming surgery on the bird tonight, so Scout couldn’t visit the bird again anytime tonight. So he didn’t have to make decision about the bird today. He had time to think it over. As Scout curled up on his bed and closed his eyes to take a nap he decided that for now at least he wasn’t going to worry about it. 

The question of just what he was going to do about the cardinal was officially future Scout’s problem…


	2. Feed the birds

For as quick and speedy as Scout could be he could be one hell of a procrastinator when it came to stuff he either wasn’t in the mood to deal with, or was just feeling way too freaking lazy to deal with. Every single teacher he had ever had in his lifetime could probably vouch for Scout’s skill in pushing things off to the very last minute. He had long lost count of the amount of school book reports he had pushed off till the very last second. Pushing off his homework till the very last second never ended well for him. All that ever ended up earning him was mornings full of frenzied panic as he put whatever the heck he could think of down on paper so he could turn it in only to get a bad grade. His oldest brother was always getting on his case about it. 

“You know if you just did your homework the night before it is due you wouldn’t have to wake up before the sun rises and scramble to finish it,” His brother would always lecture him as he watched Scout try to finish his homework before they had to leave to catch the school bus. “If you wouldn’t push things off like this it would save you a lot of trouble in the end.” 

Scout would always just roll his eyes at his brother’s lecturing, and promptly ignore him. Not that ignoring his brother ever made the lectures stop, but his brother could tell when Scout was officially tuning him out and that was all that really mattered. With that said deep down Scout knew that his brother did have a point. To be fair Scout never pushed off any job that was important, or downright urgent. He knew better then to waste time when his job required him to do something quick, or when something truly important was at stake. With that said if something didn’t have an urgent tag attached to it Scout was a bit too quick to label something as future Scout’s problem. The problem with that is that future Scout’s problem become current Scout’s problem once enough time had passed. He had been quick to label the bird issue as future Scout’s problem. 

After he had done that he didn’t even think about it anymore for the rest of the night. Even when he had gone to dinner, and saw that the Medic wasn’t there he didn’t think about the issue for longer than a minute at most. Medic said he would have to perform surgery on the bird. Chances were high that the man was busy doing just that. For the briefest of seconds, he thought of possibly bringing a plate of the fried fish dish that Demoman had made that night for dinner to Medic, but Heavy ended up volunteering to do that instead. Not surprising really. Medic usually made sure to show up for dinner, but sometimes the man got caught up in his experiments. On those rare nights when Medic didn’t show up for dinner Heavy was usually the one to volunteer to either go and fetch the man, or to bring dinner to him.

With Heavy taking care of the Medic Scout didn’t really bother to think of Medic or the bird for the rest of the night. He honestly didn’t allow himself to. It was sort of hard to think about it when Pyro was dragging him into the rec room so that Scout could watch that _Star Track_ series with him and Engie. Pyro was hooked on the show the second he saw the first episode, and he was quick to show it to Engie and get him hooked too. Scout just happened to be in the room when Pyro stumbled upon the show, and somehow the firebug got it into his head that this meant that Scout had to join him and Engie whenever they watched it. Scout liked the show well enough, so he never complained. The second that the _Star Track_ episode had ended Soldier took the TV over.

“It is my turn to have the TV, maggots!” Soldier had shouted as he started changing the channels to find something he liked. 

Pyro had grumbled a bit about it, but it was late enough that Pyro had shrugged it off and went to bed. Engineer had only mumbled something about wanting to complete some blueprint idea before it got much later, and wished them good night. Scout stayed out in the rec room with Soldier for a bit longer if only because Soldier seemed to have a knack for finding the cheesiest films in existence. Sure enough that night Soldier had found another winner for the ‘cheesy horror movie’ category when he found some horror flick called _Attack of the Crab Monsters_. The movie was just as ridiculous as the title had made it sound. Scout probably would have stayed up late to watch the pure cheesy glory that the movie had to offer, but exhaustion and his own plans to wake up early tomorrow for his morning run ended up forcing him to bed. He went to bed that night not even thinking about Medic or the bird for a single second. 

However, when Scout was woken up at six the very first thought to enter is groggy brain was _‘Well, it’s a new day. Future Scout’s problem is now your current problem.’_

The second that thought enters Scout’s head he lets out a loud groan of frustration.

A voice that sounds just a bit too much like his oldest brother gleefully seems to say in his head _‘This is why we don’t push things off to the last second. You have to deal with it eventually, so it is better to deal with the problem now rather than delay the inevitable.’_

Scout can’t help but mentally snort at that thought. Who knew trying to help a bird would end up forcing him to recall his brother’s lectures on not being a procrastinator? Honestly, he got enough of those lectures growing up he sure as hell didn’t need to have his brain replaying said lectures over and over again in his head like some sort of broken record. 

“I’ll think about the freaking bird decision at breakfast,” Scout mumbles to himself as he slides off of the bed, and starts getting ready for his morning run. 

Some part of his brain is quick to point out that he’s just delaying actually making a decision again, but Scout ignores that thought. He honestly does try to not think about the bird, and at first he is decently successful at ignoring the cardinal shaped problem that was taking up space in his head. Honestly, the fact that he wasn’t a morning person probably had more to do with that than anything else. His groggy sleepy brain was too preoccupied with getting dressed and ready for the day to try and really think about anything else. 

Yet, once he was dressed and stepping outside his sleepy state started to fall away. It was hard to stay sleepy in such nice weather. The sun was rising, but the heat of the day hadn’t kicked in quite yet. There was a gentle breeze blowing, and while it was a bit chilly it was doing a good job at waking Scout up a bit. The sound of the leaves in the trees being rustled was downright soothing as Scout walked over to the old hiking trail that wrapped around the RED base. The sound of the early birds singing their songs was usually also rather pleasant, but that day the birds’ cheerful singing was only serving to frustrate Scout. Every time he heard the birds cheerfully chirping away the memory of the cardinals fearful worried chirps would jump into his head. 

_‘The cardinal really didn’t seem to like it when you were not near him,’_ The little voice in his head would gleefully remind him.

Scout tried to shove that thought away as he stepped onto the rarely used dirt path of the trail. The second he stepped onto the path he quickly broke out into a sprint. He ran down the path like a man possessed. After running down this path for a few years now Scout had gotten to the point where he knew this path like the back of his own hand. He was able to run full speed ahead with no worries. He knew every twist and turn that this path had. He knew when to jump over any stray tree roots, or when to make a hard turn to avoid slamming face first into a tree. When he was running along on that path he felt truly free, and for a brief few minutes Scout could forget about his troubles. However, that brief moment of peace was lost when Scout spotted a cardinal sitting on a branch of a nearby tree as he ran by. The memory of the he injured cardinal pitifully chirping as Scout left the little bird’s line of sight flashed in his head. 

_‘Are you really okay with never checking up on the bird again?’_ A little voice in Scout’s head asked. 

Scout tried to shove that thought away as he jumped up and grabbed one of the strong thick branches that were overhead. He had enough momentum going that he was able to swing himself forward and let go. The swing actually propelled him forward a pretty good distance, and Scout was even able to land on his feet and keep running without even pausing once. Scout couldn’t help but smirk a bit at his rather impressive jump, but he frowned when the cardinal he spotted earlier flew off its branch and quickly flew by. He couldn’t help but pause as he watched the little red bird fly away, and out of view. As he watched the bird fly away he could hear Medic’s voice echo in his head. 

_I think the cardinal would like it if you visited him._

Scout groaned as he continued running. Why was this bugging him so much? It was just a bird.

 _‘Well, a bird and Medic.’_ He thought as he frowned.

He didn’t like the idea of being around Medic’s birds. That hour or so with them yesterday hadn’t been that bad, but it hadn’t helped get rid of his discomfort with them. Thinking of them still caused that weird ache in his chest. With that said the idea of being around Medic himself was surprisingly alright to Scout. Honestly, when Scout had asked Medic for help he expected the man to just take the bird from him and walk off. He hadn’t expected Medic to let him into his infirmary. His short time with Medic himself hadn’t been awful. Scout wouldn’t say it was pleasant per say, but it was alright. A bit surprising really.

Medic usually didn’t like it if people randomly entered his infirmary. The only time he was fine with it was if someone had an appointment, or if they were currently bleeding to death and needed urgent medical care. Other than that Medic usually preferred if they stayed out of his little sanctuary. The only people who really had a free pass to enter that place whenever they pleased was Heavy and Engineer. Heavy was basically Medic’s best friend so of course he was allowed in whenever. It probably helped that Heavy was strangely fine with being used as a guinea pig for Medic’s experiments. Respawn got rid of a lot of worries when it came to sudden death, but even so Scout didn’t understand how Heavy could be okay with someone digging around in his chest cavity while replacing his perfectly fine human organs with the organs of a gorilla or whatever other animal guts Medic somehow got his hands on. That was one of those things Scout didn’t understand, and never really wanted to. 

As for Engineer he and Medic tended to do a few experiments together which is why Engie had a free pass to come and go as he pleased. Scout had heard Engineer ramble on about plans to upgrade or improve Medic’s Medi-Gun enough to know that any experiments they did together usually involved their equipment in some way. Anyway, those were the only two who could come and go to the infirmary whenever they wished.

“And now I got a free pass to the infirmary now I guess,” Scout muttered to himself. 

Thinking of it now the offer to visit the bird whenever he wanted had been genuine. The Medic’s soft smile quickly flashed in Scout’s head upon thinking of the offer, and he couldn’t help but stumble a little when that image popped into his brain. The only smiles that Scout had ever seen on Medic’s face were insane grins when he was killing on the battlefield, or polite smiles that were usually fake more often than not. That gentle smile was something new. It was soft, and it made Medic look a lot younger. It was downright kind looking. 

It… was a smile that Scout wouldn’t mind seeing more of. 

The second that desire popped into his head Scout was quick to shake it off. 

_‘Why would I want to see that guy of all people smile like that at me more often?’_ He thought.

No real answer really came to mind. All he knew was that some part of him felt a bit happy at the idea of seeing those soft gentle smiles aimed at him. Scout tried again to shake that thought off as he focused on the fact that he was one of the few people who had a free pass to come and go into Medic’s infirmary. 

Yay, for him. 

Now was he actually going to use that free pass? 

He honestly didn’t know. Medic seemed to be rather honest when he said that the bird would probably like it if Scout visited it. He seemed to truly believe those words. With that said how true could it really be? It was a wild bird. Why would it care if Scout was around? With that said Scout was a bit hesitant to dismiss the Medic’s words entirely. The man was very knowledgeable about birds. Sort of hard not to be when he cared for an army of doves. When you took care of that many birds you sort of had to know a thing or two about them, right? Scout sighed as he hoped over a stray tree root. Honestly, he didn’t mind visiting the bird per say. He just didn’t like the idea of being near Medic’s other birds. As Scout ran along the two choices that he had were constantly echoing in his head over and over again. 

_Visit the bird._

_Don’t visit the bird._

_Visit the bird._

_Don’t visit the bird._

By the time he got back to the base he still didn’t know what choice to go with. He walked into the dining room with a frown on his face, but it faded slightly when he saw that breakfast was being laid out on the table. It was Sniper’s turn to cook breakfast that day so that meant eggs, sausages, bacon, toast, and hash browns.

“Morning,” Sniper said as he placed a plate full of crispy bacon down on the table. 

Scout just gave him a slight wave in greeting as he picked up a plate, and started piling food onto it. He heard Engineer and Pyro give him their own good mornings. They had already made their plates, and were slowly working their way through their food. Scout mumbled his own good morning to them, but he mostly focused on trying to find his favorite jam among the hundreds of jars that were already set out on the table. Scout let out a small noise of triumph upon finding the raspberry jam hidden behind the jar of grape jelly, and the jar of that disgusting vegemite stuff that Sniper liked for some reason. Scout started slathering as much of the jam as he possibly could onto the toast, but he almost dropped the butter knife when he heard Engineer ask him a question.

“Say Scout what happened to that bird that you gave to Medic?”

Scout stared at Engineer as he heard Sniper say “I almost forgot about the bird. Was Medic able to help it?” 

Scout was somehow able to make himself say “Uh, yeah it had a broken wing and leg. Medic says he could fix it, but it would be stuck with a cast for a while.”

“Sounds like the poor little bugger was real beat up,” Sniper said. “Where did you find it anyway?” 

“Up on the roof of the building across from our Respawn building,” Scout answered. 

Engineer smiled slightly as he said “Well, it’s a good thing you found it. That bird would probably be dead by now if you hadn’t.” 

Scout just let out a small hum of agreement, but said nothing more. The conversation about the bird was thankfully dropped after that. The bird was quickly forgotten in favor of eating breakfast. As they ate the rest of the team quickly started to trickle into the room to join them. Soldier came in shouting his good morning so loudly that it could have probably woke up the dead. Heavy and Demoman entered the dining room at about the same time, and thankfully their good morning was at a more normal volume level although Demo’s good morning could rival Soldier’s in the cheeriness department. Heavy arrived soon after looking rather sleepy, and still a bit out of it. Heavy wasn’t much of a morning person, so honestly that was expected. Spy was the last to arrive which also wasn’t surprising. He was usually the last to arrive for meal times.

Scout kept expecting Medic to walk through the door, but he never did. Not surprising usually. This wasn’t abnormal in any way, but it felt a bit different today due to the fact that Scout knew he was probably the reason why Medic hadn’t showed up. It was when breakfast was halfway over did anyone bother to mention it. 

“Doc not coming?” Engineer asked. 

“Must have had another late night or something,” Demoman said as he shrugged. 

Scout couldn’t help but winch a tiny bit at that. If he did have a late night last night, it was probably due to the fact that he was busy caring of the bird.

“I’ll take a plate to Docktor,” Heavy said as he sat up from his seat. 

Right when Heavy said that the question that had been haunting him all morning came back to him.

 _‘Now’s the time to make your choice,’_ A little voice in his head said. _‘If you want to visit the bird now is your chance to do it.’_

“I’ll take a plate to him,” Scout blurted out. 

He wasn’t sure if he should be insulted or not at the fact that almost everyone in the room looked surprised at his offer. To some extent it felt like they were surprised that he was going out of his way to help someone, and while that was probably some of the case Scout was probably overblowing that a bit in his head. It’s not like Scout never helped ever or anything. With that said Scout really didn’t have much to do with the Medic, so the fact that he was offering to drop food off to him was probably a bit of a shock.

“You are willing to do this?” Heavy asked slowly. 

“Yeah,” Scout says with a sigh. “Want to check up on that bird I left with him anyway.”

“Almost forgot about that little thing,” Demoman said. “I take it Medic was able to help it?”

“Yeah, but it is going to be stuck with a cast for a couple weeks I guess.”

“Better to be stuck with a cast rather than dead,” Demoman said.

Scout shrugged a little upon hearing that, but said nothing. The man was probably right in that regard. Still, Scout just wanted to get Medic’s plate ready and go.

“Can someone take care of my plate?” Scout asked.

“I will deal with it,” Heavy said. “It is my turn to take care of dishes anyway.” 

“Thanks big guy,” Scout said as he picked up the only empty plate that was left on the table. 

They had this type of breakfast enough times that Scout already knew what to put on Medic’s plate. Two eggs, some hash browns, a whole lot of sausage, and a piece of toast with some strawberry jam on it. No bacon because Medic was some weirdo who didn’t like bacon very much. How the man could not like bacon Scout didn’t get. Bacon was amazing, but if Medic wasn’t going to touch the stuff that was fine with the runner. Medic not touching the bacon just meant that there was more bacon for him. 

Once the plate was ready to go Scout scurried out of the room. If anyone noticed that he left in a hurry Scout they didn’t bother to say anything while Scout was still within earshot. When Scout got to the doors that would lead into the Medic’s infirmary he hesitated for a moment. A part of him wanted to just leave the food there at the door, knock to let Medic know that the food was there, and then take off running. Somehow Scout was able to push that feeling away. He had already gotten this far. There was no point in chickening out now.

Scout shoved the doors open and called out “Yo, Doc! You in here?” 

The sound of cooing doves in the room caused a small shiver to travel down Scout’s back, but he ignored it in favor of looking around the room. Scout spotted Medic pretty quickly. He was sitting at his desk with a pen in hand, and a pile of papers spread out on the desk. Surprisingly, the man wasn’t wearing his signature rubber gloves which was almost odd to see. The man always had his gloves on no matter what so seeing him without them was an odd feeling. Besides the lack of gloves Scout also noticed that there was a small cardboard box sitting on his desk with the lid popped upon, but Scout didn’t bother to ask what was in it. Medic was looking at him with a look of slight confusion on his face.

“Scout?” Medic called out. “What are you doing here this early in the morning?”

“Uh,” Scout said as he stepped into the room and held the plate up. “I brought you breakfast?” 

“Oh, is it time for breakfast already?” The man asked. “I didn’t realize. I got a bit caught up in my paperwork.”

“Paper work for what?” Scout asked.

“Oh, a couple of different things. I had to update a few of my files that I have on Sniper. Those jarate pills of his are causing such interesting effects on his kidneys! I’ll probably have to replace them soon actually. I’m thinking of replacing his kidneys with the kidneys of a camel.” 

As the Medic moved his papers out of the way so that Scout could put the plate down the runner couldn’t help but ask “Uh, should you be telling me this? Isn’t there like a rule that doctors shouldn’t tell other people about their patients or whatever?” 

Medic just waved off Scout’s concern as he said “Oh, its fine! I doubt Sniper cares about who knows anyway.” 

“If you say so,” Scout said as he put the plate down. “What was the other paperwork for?”

“Orders for more supplies,” Medic answered. “Parts for repairing my equipment, more medical supplies for the infirmary, and a request to Miss Pauling to send me a few more animal organs. She promised to send in some of the organs of a tiger soon, and I wanted to know how soon I should expect to see those delivered.” 

“Right…” Scout mumbled. 

He was suddenly regretting asking Medic about the papers. 

That thought disappeared when he heard Medic say “Thank you for bringing me breakfast. Was Heavy busy?”

“Nah, I volunteered to make you a plate and bring it over.” Scout shrugged. “Thought maybe you had to stay up late to take care of the bird, so I sort of owe you for maybe forcing you to stay up late.”

“I see,” Medic said as he picked up the toast that was sitting on the plate. “You don’t have to worry. The surgery was simple, so I actually got a full night’s rest last night. I just decided to do some paperwork before going to breakfast, and lost track of time.” 

The man took a bite of the toast, and let out a small hum of appreciation.

“Heavy make my plate for you?” The man questioned.

“No, I made it.”

Medic raised a single brow in surprise. 

“We have been working together long enough for me to figure out what you like to eat,” Scout said with a small huff of annoyance.

“Fair enough,” Medic said with a shrug. “I just didn’t think you paid that much attention to what foods we seemed to enjoy.”

“It’s not like I turn my brain off the second I’m sitting at the table,” Scout said. “After sharing a couple of meals with people you start noticing what foods they avoid, and what ones you jump for like your life depends on it or whatever.”

“As I said before that’s fair enough,” Medic said. “I just didn’t pin you as someone who was super observant I guess. Or maybe I should say I didn’t think you would care enough to make a note of it.” 

That was a bit of a blunt thing to say if Scout was being honest.

“I can be observant when I want to be,” Scout grumbled. “I had to be back in Boston. Not paying attention in a street fight ain’t exactly a good idea if you catch my drift.”

Medic looked rather curious now at the mention of street fighting, but Scout didn’t elaborate. Just saying what he had was veering a bit too close to subjects that he would rather not discuss at the moment.

“So where is the bird?” Scout asked in hopes of moving the subject away from his past.

Luckily, Medic seemed willing to let Scout skip over that subject without comment. 

The man only smiled slightly as he said “Oh, I see. You aren’t here to see me you just want to see your bird.”

“Guilty as charged,” Scout said as he smirked. “So where is the little ball of feathers?”

Medic just motioned toward the box sitting on his desk. Scout took a few steps toward the box, and looked inside. Lying inside the box were the softest looking green blankets that Scout had ever seen. Sitting on the pile of green blankets was the little red bird. Upon looking at the bird it took all of Scout’s willpower to keep from laughing. Quite frankly the bird looked a little ridiculous. His little leg had been placed in a green cast that caused him to have to keep his leg stretched out. Honestly, he looked like he was trying to do a Kazotsky Kick dance only to get frozen halfway through the dance. His broken wing was also in a little green cast, and it had been tapped to his side most likely to keep him from moving it around. Scout didn’t think it was possible for a bird to look like it was pouting, but right now it looked like the little red bird was putting on his very best impression of a pouting child. He just looked like he was done with everything. 

The pouting look instantly faded away when the bird looked up, and spotted Scout. The bird seemed to come alive within a matter of seconds. It started chirping, and Scout noticed rather quickly that this chirping sounded like your typical happy birdsong rather than the scared chirping from yesterday. In fact, he was singing so much Scout couldn’t help but think it sounded like the bird was trying to talk his ear off.

“That’s the first noise he has made since you left yesterday,” Medic commented. 

“Really?”

“Yes, he was rather subdued after you left. I think he’s happy to see you again.”

“Is he really?” Scout asked. “I mean he’s, like, a wild bird? I figured I would just be seen as a big scary giant to him.”

“Birds are a lot smarter then you think,” Medic said. “I think he figured out pretty quickly that you only wanted to help him.”

Scout looked back down at the bird. The bird just stared back up at him happily chirping his little heart out. 

“He’s rather chatty now,” Medic joked. “Reminds me of a certain someone.”

“Oh, ha ha.” Scout said with a bit of sarcasm. 

He shot the Medic a mock glare only to get rather smug looking smirk in return. Scout rolled his eyes as he looked back down at the bird.

“Would you like to pet him?” Medic suddenly asked.

“Would that be okay?” Scout asked with a bit uncertainty.

“It should be fine as long as you don’t touch his bad wing,” Medic answered. 

Scout looked down at the bird, and bit his bottom of his lip with a bit of uncertainty. Where would be a safe place to pet the bird? Scout lifted his hand only to leave it hovering over the box. He must have been staring at the box for a long time because soon enough he heard Medic let out a soft sigh. Scout heard the shuffling of cloth, and before Scout knew it Medic was by his side. The man took hold of Scout’s hand, and gently guided his hand to the bird’s back.

“It’s safe to pet the bird here, but be careful not to bush up against the injured wing.” Scout nodded as he let Medic guide his hand. 

He was quick to notice how soft the bird’s feathers were, and the bird seemed to enjoy the gentle touch. With that said Scout couldn’t focus much on that. All he could focus on was the soft touch of Medic’s hands on his own. His hands were surprisingly soft although maybe that shouldn’t have been surprising. The man wore gloves all day every day. That protected his hands from a lot. Besides noticing how soft they were Scout couldn’t help but notice how warm he was. Medic wasn’t glued to his side or anything, but he was close enough that Scout could just feel the heat radiating off of him. Was he always like a mini human shaped walking furnace? 

_‘Why are you even focusing so much on Medic like this?’_ Some part of his brain questioned. 

That thought caused Scout to freeze a little. Why was he focusing so much on how warm Medic was, or how soft his hands were? Sort of a weird thing to hone in on. Honestly, maybe he was focusing so much on it because Medic was being so gentle with Scout and the bird. Gentle wasn’t a word that Scout normally associated with Medic. He had seen the man violently stab a BLU mercenary to death with his Ubersaw all while grinning like a madman more times than he could count. The guy apparently broke one of Heavy’s ribs off when he had been putting in his new heart, and had just shrugged said rib braking off like it was nothing. He had also seen the Medic kill the BLU Sniper once by flinging a frying pan at him although to this day Scout still had no idea where the hell the Medic even got that freaking frying pan from. 

At any rate gentle was never a word that Scout would use to describe the man. Yet, right here and now the man was the perfect picture of gentle. He was being so gentle with the bird and Scout as he showed the runner how to pet the bird without hurting it. When Scout looked at Medic he could see a soft smile on the man’s face as he looked down at the bird in the box. It was that same gentle smile that Scout had wanted to see. This whole moment wasn’t something that Scout expected himself to be in, but he had to admit to felt almost nice if he was being honest. The rather short moment came to an abrupt end when Medic released his grip from Scout’s hand, and stepped away.

“You are being gentle enough with the bird,” Medic said. “This is good. I think the bird would trust you enough to let you pet his head, and give his head some gentle scratches. I wouldn’t do much more beyond that for now while he is still recovering though.”

“I, uh, sure I got it,” Scout mumbled out. 

Medic left his side to sit back down, and finish off his breakfast. Some tiny part of Scout felt strangely disappointed that Medic’s rare gentle moment had ended so abruptly. Scout was quick to push that feeling away as soon as it appeared.

“If you like you could feed the bird,” Medic said. “I haven’t fed him yet.”

“Sure,” Scout said as he finally moved his hand away. 

The bird let out a few chirps of protest at this, but Scout ignored this as he asked “Where do you keep the bird stuff?”

“Over there in that cabinet,” Medic said as he pointed at the cabinet that was tucked away in the corner. 

As Scout walked over to the cabinet he was all too aware of the doves that were watching him. He had been able to ignore them because he had been distracted with the cardinal and Medic, but he was all too aware of them now. He couldn’t spot Archimedes which he really didn’t like, but as long as the birds kept their distance he would be fine. Upon opening the cabinet Scout couldn’t help but just sit there in stare. It was stuffed to the brim with things for birds. Bags filled with different types of bird feed were sitting on every shelf along with bags of bird treats, and bags filled bird pellets. Scout could even see a couple of different bird toys shoved in there as well. 

“Uhhhh,” Scout said slowly as he stared at the bags.

Which one should he even use? There were so many bags here, and they all seemed to contain different types of feed.

Medic quickly called out “The bag you want is on the bottom shelf. It’s the one with the cracked corn and sunflower seeds in it.”

Scout found the bag quickly enough. It even had a little cardinal on it. Scout picked the bag up as Medic said “There are a few plates in there that I use to put my some of my dove’s food on. There should be a small plate in there for you to use for your cardinal.” 

Scout found the little white plate rather quickly. He got the food on the plate pretty quick, and got the plate put in the box with the bird. The cardinal seemed rather happy with the food because he dived right in about as well as a bird in a leg cast could.

“Could you feed the doves too while you are at it?” 

Scout froze a bit at that thought. 

“Is it… safe?” Scout asked slowly.

“Oh, don’t be such a baby! The doves won’t swarm you just because you have a bit of food on you.” 

The large grin on Medic’s face made it hard to believe him. The grin was the sort of he wore when a teammate was about to do something stupid, and Medic decided to sit back and watch the fireworks. It wasn’t a grin that inspired confidence. Medic must have known that because he was quick to say “They didn’t swarm you when you were getting food ready for the cardinal did they?”

“Well, no…” Scout started to say only to be cut off by the Medic.

“Then it will be fine,” The man argued. 

Scout sort of wanted to say no anyway, but some small part of him just had to chime in with _‘You do sort of owe him for helping out with the cardinal.’_

Scout sighed and said “Fine. Can’t be too hard to get a bunch of stupid bird feed ready.” 

Turns out he ended up being wrong about that. 

It wasn’t exactly the hardest thing ever, but Medic was really picky about how Scout got everything ready. Either he added too much of the Dove’s food mic, or he didn’t add enough pellets or whatever. The comments were almost never ending. 

“Scout, that is way too much bird feed. You only need half of that.”

“You need more pellets in the mix then that, Scout.”

“Don’t use that food tray use the other one. That one is too small.”

At some point Scout wanted to ask why Medic didn’t just do it because honestly at the rate they were going it probably would have taken less time. Sheer force of will was the only thing that kept Scout from saying that, but he made sure to grumble about Medic ordering him around the whole time. When he placed the food down he took a couple of quick steps back from the bird’s food, and honestly waited for havoc to rain down on them all. Surprisingly, the birds didn’t swarm in like a pack of wild animals. They were all rather calm as they approached to eat. Happy little coos started to fill the air as they ate. Scout watched them only to feel that familiar ache in his chest when he spotted Archimedes in the group. The bird seemed to notice his staring because it looked up at him, and let out a cheery sounding coo. Scout just took a few more steps back in response.

“Thank you for helping to feed the birds,” Medic said. “I might have you help feed them again next time you come to visit your bird.”

A whole bunch of questions popped into Scout’s head upon hearing that.

“Next time?” Scout started to question only to abandoned that thought when his brain truly processed the idea of feeding the doves again. 

“You want me to feed your doves again?”

“Ja, I think it would be good for you to deal with my doves a bit more. Exposure therapy would help with your fear of them.”

“I ain’t afraid of no birds!”

“Then it will help with your reluctance of dealing with them then,” Medic said. “The more you deal with the doves the more comfortable you will get with them. It would be good for you to start working on this issue.” Scout was about to argue against that, but right when he opened his mouth the speaker system that was set up throughout the base came to life, and the Administrator’s voice filled the room. 

_Mission begins in thirty minutes._

“Duty calls,” Medic said. “You should go ahead and go. I need to finish eating, and get ready to go. I imagine you need to get ready for battle as well. We can talk more about this later.” 

Without another word Scout was gently shooed out of the room. Once Scout was standing outside of the infirmary all alone the young man couldn’t help but just stand there and try to process the idea that visiting the Medic every morning to feed the birds might become a regular part of his life. 

Just what did he get himself into?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Attack of the Crab Monsters: This is a real movie from 1957. It's your typical cheesy horror movie.


	3. I got your back

If there was one good thing to come from the Administrator starting the countdown for battle it was the fact that Scout instantly had something to distract him from the fact that he may have just signed himself up for helping Medic take care of his birds for the next couple of weeks. It was easy to stay distracted when he had to get ready for the day's battle. Most of the battlefields in this area were within walking distance of the base. The farthest battlefield was only about a twenty-minute drive away from the base. Today’s battle was taking place at Sawmill, so they would be walking there. Upon stepping outside Scout could see that the sky was already starting to turn a dark stormy gray. It had been a bit cloudy when Scout had returned to the base from his morning run, but it had clearly gotten a lot worse while he had been inside. That seemingly nice weather from early that morning apparently hadn't been there to stay. 

“It’s going to start raining real soon,” Sniper commented as he stared up at the gray sky overhead.

“Of course it is going to rain,” Spy grumbled. “We are going to Sawmill. It always rains when we go to Sawmill.”

Spy had a point. For some reason whenever they went to Sawmill it always rained. Not once had they ever fought there when it was a clear sunny day.

“Sometimes it feels like the higher ups make sure to send us to Sawmill whenever they learn that we are going to get rain,” Engineer joked.

Demoman let out a small huff of amusement upon hearing that, and said “You joke, but I honestly think that they might actually do that.” 

Spy picked up the pace a bit as he said “Can we please hurry? I would prefer to get to the battlefield before the rain kicks in.”

“Why?” Scout questioned. “You are just going to get wet when the fight starts.”

The glare that Spy shot him made it clear that he didn’t appreciate that comment. 

“Maybe I want to enjoy my time of being nice and dry as long as I possibly can,” Spy snapped.

Scout only shrugged upon hearing that. Spy’s rather sour attitude didn’t bother Scout as much as it normally would have. Sawmill was one of Spy’s least favorite battlefields, and everyone knew it. He hated getting his suit wet, and fighting in the rain was a nightmare to him. It only made sense that the always rainy Sawmill would so heavily despised by him. After fighting together for so long Scout had gotten used to how irritable Spy would get when they went to Sawmill. Upon reaching Sawmill they entered the RED Respawn building, and quickly started to prepare for battle. Upon reaching his locker Scout quickly started to plan out what equipment he would bring with him. 

_‘We are fighting a King of the Hill fight today, so my scattergun should be good enough.’_ He thought as he pulled out his scattergun.

What else should he bring with him? He brushed his fingers over the handle of his Boston Basher bat only to shake his head. While it was a good weapon if used carefully he had used it in the last battle. It would probably be wise to use something else if only to keep the BLU team on their toes. His moved from one weapon to another trying to figure out what he wanted to go with. Eventually his eyes landed on the Sandman. Scout smiled as he looked at the wooden bat.

“That will work,” Scout murmured as he pulled the bat out.

He could always send baseballs flying with the good ol’ Sandman, and stunning a couple of BLUs by hitting them in the head hard enough with a baseball would be very useful here.

 _‘Alright, that’s my melee weapon figure out. Now what should my secondary weapon be?’_ Scout thought. 

Upon thinking that his eyes were automatically drawn to the bottle of Mad Milk that sitting on the top shelf of his locker hidden behind a couple of cans of Crit-a-Cola and Bonk! Atomic Punch. Scout pushed the cans away as he grabbed the Mad Milk, and pulled it off the shelf. 

_‘Guess this could work,’_ Scout thought.

It couldn’t short out an enemy Spy’s cloaking device, but it could reveal a hidden Spy if Scout chucked it at him which was good enough for Scout. Better yet if an enemy was covered in Mad Milk anyone on his team who attacked them would get a bit of healing from it all while damaging the enemy. How the hell it was able to heal them like that Scout wasn’t sure. The Mann Co. ad that advertised the Mad Milk weapon didn’t exactly explain the science behind it. All the ad had said was that the milk came from cows exposed to radiation, or something like that.

Scout mentally shrugged as he shoved the jar into his bag. Honestly, he didn’t really care how it worked. As long as it worked Scout was happy. Once Scout was ready he took his place in front of the door that would lead him out to the battlefield. Everyone else was already waiting at the gate ready to go. The Administrator was already starting the countdown, and as she counted down Scout mentally started to count down with her. 

**5…**

**4…**

**3…**

**2…**

**1…**

“Get fighting!” 

The second the gates went down everyone rushed out onto the battlefield like a pack of wild animals thirsty for blood. Scout let out a loud whoop of joy as he rushed outside. Upon stepping outside, he was immediately beat upon by the rain. Scout didn’t mind. The rain was actually rather refreshing. It was a bit cold, but it wasn’t freezing cold. Scout paused for a second to just enjoy the downpour for a few seconds, but after a few seconds had passed he quickly threw himself back into the fray. It didn’t take long for him to find someone to fight with. He stumbled upon the BLU Scout trying to sneak through the RED side of the battlefield near the waterfall. Of course Scout could not let that pass. Upon spotting each other the two opposing Scouts stared each other down for a few minutes. 

The BLU Scout smirked a bit as he tightened his grip on his Atomizer as he said “Scout fight?” 

Scout immediately knew what the other Scout was asking when he said that. He wasted no time in grab his Sandman bat, and he was quick to smirk and say “Scout fight.” With those words spoken the two boys leapt at each other and tried to wail on each other with their bats. Curses were yelled, insults were spat at each other, and a few punches were thrown as the Scouts brawled with each other. As they fought Scout heard the Administrator chime in with some comment on how the battle was going over his headphones. 

“We have captured the control point!"

Honestly, Scout didn’t really listen to anything else after she said that. Once she made it clear that his team was capturing the control point nothing she said after that really mattered. It sounded like his team had everything under control, so they didn’t need him for the moment. He was free to focus all of his energy on fighting the enemy Scout. Honestly, fighting the enemy Scout was almost nostalgic in a weird way. The enemy Scout’s anything goes fighting style was clearly something he learned from street fighting. Fighting the BLU Scout reminded Scout of the fights he would get into with enemy street gangs back in Boston. Heck, fighting him brought back some bittersweet memories from the old days. Scout couldn’t say that he missed those days per say, but he had to admit sometimes it felt like things were simpler back then. 

To some extant Scout could not help but wonder if the enemy Scout sometimes felt some of that same nostalgia when he fought against him. The BLU was a good enough brawler that chances were high that he had been in more than his fair share of street fights. Whatever the answer was it probably didn’t matter much. Ultimately, Scout didn’t care too much about what was going through an enemy’s head. It took a while, but eventually Scout came out the victor in their little fight.

As he watched the light fade from the enemy Scout’s eyes he couldn’t help but say “Hit the bricks, pal. You’re done.”

He continued to smirk as the other Scout died, but once the BLU Scout’s body faded away and was sent away to the BLU Respawn he allowed his smirk to fade away. He may have won the fight, but the BLU Scout had been able to get a lot of good hits in. It felt like the BLU Scout had been able to crack a few of his ribs. His left arm ached rather badly, and he could already see a deep dark bruise showing up on his skin. 

“I need a health kit,” Scout mumbled to himself. 

Honestly, he was close enough to the RED Respawn room that he could probably just pop in there real quick and get some healing from the locker full of medical supplies. With a plan in mind Scout turned to go back the RED Respawn building. His short walk toward the RED Respawn was rather quiet although Scout didn’t think much about that. Chances were high that his team were at the checkpoint protecting it from the BLU team. Just as Scout was about to each the doorway of the RED Respawn room he spotted Medic quickly running out of the building that held the control point. The man was alone as he ran out of the building, and he was in a real rough shape.

Even from where Scout was standing he could get a good look at all of the injuries that the man had. He had a rather bad cut on his forehead that was bleeding rather heavily. The sleeves of his coat were ripped here and there reveling the cuts and bruises that covered his arms. He was limping slightly as he ran which seemed to imply that he hurt his leg in some way. Scout could see the man limping as he tried to hurry toward the health kit that was in an open shed nearby. All in all, Medic was in a bad enough shape that it was sort of a miracle that he was still alive. Any thoughts about Medic’s rather rough state were quickly flung to the side when Scout saw the air behind the Medic start to shift unnaturally. He knew what that meant. 

_Spy…_

Scout started running toward Medic the second that realization hit him. He could see the BLU Spy slowly fading into view behind Medic, but unfortunately Medic seemed unaware of it. Scout thought of yelling out a warning, but that could cause the Spy to immediately stab the Medic in the back. There was no real telling if the man would be able to react fast enough anyway. No, if Scout wanted to save Medic he would have to do something fast. Luckily, he had a rough idea in mind. As he ran he scrambled to pull a baseball out of his bag. If his aim with the Sandman was good enough he could stun the BLU Spy by hitting him in the head with a baseball. The second Scout pulled the ball out of the bag he put his plan into action.

The second the ball went flying Scout mentally begged _‘Please hit, please hit, please hit.’_

Someone must have heard his plea because the ball was able to hit its target. The sound of the hard ball smacking against someone’s skull was so loud that it could somehow be heard over the sound of the pouring rain. Medic quickly spun around upon only to be surprised when he saw a stunned BLU Spy standing right there.

“Get 'em Doc!” Scout cried out as he yanked a bottle of Mad Milk out of his bag, and flung it at the Spy.

The second the bottle smashed against its target and covered the man in milk Medic started stabbing the man with his Ubersaw. Scout couldn’t help but winch a bit as he watched Medic tear the man apart. Both the BLU and RED Medic were scarily efficient with their weapons, and after having ended up on the wrong side of the BLU Medic’s weapons a few times himself Scout couldn’t help but feel a bit of sympathy toward the poor sucker that ended up getting killed with a Medic weapon. Luckily, Scout had something to distract him from the BLU Spy’s current misfortune. With the very first stab Scout could see that the Mad Milk was doing its job in healing the Medic. It was sort of fascinating to just stand there and watch as his wounds just slowly healed as if by magic. By the time the BLU Spy finally died and was sent back to his Respawn Medic was completely healed. If not for the blood that stained his white coat one would be forgiven for thinking that he hadn’t been in a battle at all.

_‘One of these days I really need to ask Medic how Mad Milk is able to do that,’_ Scout thought.

Scout allowed that thought to drop when Medic stood up straight, and looked over at Scout with a smile. Without even having to ask Medic used the Medi-gun on him. The second those red healing beams hit him Scout let out a small sigh of relief. He could already feel his pain fading away as the warm comforting feeling that the healing beam brought with it washed over him. 

“Thanks Doc,” Scout said as he smiled.

“I should be the one to thank you,” Medic said. “You came just in time to save me from a backstab, and that Mad Milk of yours was a lifesaver.”

“No problem Doc,” Scout said. “I got your back.” 

Right after he said that Scout realized that the back comment may have sounded more like a stupid joke due to the fact that they had been talking about backstabbing spies two seconds ago. Luckily, Medic seemed more amused by the comment more than anything else. 

“So where is everyone?” Scout asked. 

“Dead and in Respawn,” Medic answered. “After we captured the control point most of the BLU team charged in. I was the only one who survived.”

“Did anyone on the BLU team survive?” 

Medic smirked a little as he said “Their Heavy managed to escape in a critical condition, but I was able to take his Medic out with my crossbow.”

The man paused for a moment, and then said “Obviously their Spy was able to survive as well, but you took care of that little problem. I haven’t seen their Scout.”

“Killed him not too long ago,” Scout said. “He should be in Respawn for a while.”

Medic nodded upon hearing that. The man kept his Medi-gun trained onto Scout, and motioned toward the large sawmill building that held the control point.

“Shall we?” The man asked.

Scout only nodded as he started to run toward the building with Medic following close behind. Upon entering the building, it was clear that a rather bloody brawl had taken place there. When combined with the two large sawblades that were slowly moving back and forth in their places on the floor it made the large shed look like some set piece for a slasher film. It probably said something about how desensitized Scout was to things like this when said scene didn’t even make him blink. He just stepped into the room without much thought. It was rather quiet in there. The only noises that could be heard were the moving saws, and the sound of falling rain. 

“The Heavy isn’t back yet,” Scout murmured to Medic. 

Scout must have jinxed them when he said that because the second after those words left his mouth he could hear the sound of someone reeving up a minigun. It was coming from the BLU’s side of the map, so obviously it was the BLU Heavy approaching.

“Spoke too soon,” Scout said with a small huff of irritation.

“It will be fine,” Medic said. “I got your back.” 

That line made Scout glance back at the Medic for a few seconds. The man had a confident grin on his face as he looked at Scout, but there was a touch of softness there that Scout didn’t typically see in any of Medic’s grins. Right now the man looked like he fully believed that he and Scout could take on any challenge together. Silly as it may have seemed when Medic was giving him that grin he felt like he could take on anything that the BLU team could throw at him. Scout could only grin in return. He quickly looked away from Medic, and toward the doorway that the Heavy would be walking in through. He wasn’t here yet which was good. That meant that Scout had enough time to get ready. Without saying a word Scout quickly rushed up the nearby stairs that led up to the little alcove above. Medic followed him without comment, and Scout couldn’t help but feel a bit happy that the man was going along with whatever Scout was planning without asking any questions. It made it seem like Medic really trusted Scout to be able to handle this problem. 

Scout quickly ducked behind a wall along with Medic, and waited for a few seconds. He could hear the BLU Heavy’s minigun still spinning, but he wasn’t firing any bullets. Scout peaked out from behind the wall to glance down at the Heavy. The man was looking around ready to fire at anything that moved, but he was paying more attention to the open doorways rather then what was going on in the two alcoves above. That meant they could jump the guy. When Medic was healing Scout he got a bit of a speed boost, so hopefully that meant he could keep up with Scout and stay out of the Heavy’s line of fire.

“How close are you to having a full charge?” Scout whispered.

“About 90% percent,” The man answered. 

_‘So he’s close to a full charge then,’_ Scout thought. 

“You up for jumping the BLU Heavy?” Scout asked. “I think I can take him down.” 

The grin Medic gave Scout upon hearing those words was downright vicious as he said “I’m more then ready.” 

Scout smirked a bit in return. The Heavy wouldn't know what hit him. 

“When I give the signal then,” Scout said.

He looked back down at the BLU Heavy, and waited for the BLU to turn around so that his back was facing them. 

The second the BLU wasn’t facing toward them Scout hissed out “Now!” 

They both jumped down to the ground floor, and the second Scout’s feet touched the ground he started firing his scattergun at the BLU Heavy. The BLU let out a loud grunt of pain, but quickly started firing his gun. Both Medic and Scout were able to run circles around the guy, so that most of his bullets missed them. Even better Medic was able to duck behind a pile of logs where he could continue to heal Scout, but the BLU couldn’t get him without having Scout in his face. The BLU was able to get a few shots in on Scout, but Scout was able to shrug off the few potshots that the BLU was able to make. With Medic healing him the few pot shots that Heavy was able to get in were easily shrugged off. 

“Those $200 bullets ain’t so hot when they don’t hit nuthin’, are they?” Scout taunted. 

The look of pure rage that appeared on the man’s face upon hearing that was rather amusing, but Scout’s amusement quickly vanished when the man gave up on using the minigun entirely in favor of trying something else. Without even a single warning the BLU quickly clotheslined the Scout. Scout fell to the ground with a harsh gasp. Being clotheslined like that had knocked the air right out of him.

_‘Probably shouldn’t have been running that close to the Heavy,’_ He thought, but that thought quickly vanished when the BLU Heavy looked down at him with a grin on his face as he cracked his knuckles. 

“Ah crud,” Scout muttered. 

Getting hit in the face by the BLU Heavy was never fun. The BLU Heavy’s grin grew a bit bigger upon hearing Scout’s words, but that smile quickly vanished when Medic started speaking. 

“It’s never a good idea to ignore a Medic, dummkopf.”

The second after Scout heard those words his body started to glow a bright red as a red hot energy started to fill him. The Doc had just ÜberCharged him. An almost maniac grin appeared on the Scout’s face once he realized this. Scout didn’t waste any time. The second he realized he was being ÜberCharged Scout pulled his bat out, and lashed out at the Heavy. The sound of the wooden bat slamming against the BLU Heavy’s head was music to Scout’s ears. The Scout probably looked like a crazed animal as he attacked the Heavy, but he didn’t care. He knew how temporary ÜberCharge was. If he wanted to make the most of it he had to act fast.

Truthfully, Scout also wanted to make the most of it due to the fact that he was rarely ever ÜberCharged. He could probably count on one hand the times he was ever ÜberCharged. When Medic had ÜberCharge the people who got ÜberCharged were usually Heavy, Soldier, Demoman, or Pyro. While Scout didn’t like it he understood why. An ÜberCharged Pyro or Heavy in the right place at the right time could take a whole bunch of people down really quickly. Demoman and Soldier could annihilate a pesky sentry if ÜberCharged, or they could just blow a lot of people sky high when they didn’t have to worry about being blown up themselves. It just made more sense to ÜberCharge them rather than Scout. Thanks to the ÜberCharge rarely being used on him Scout learned real quick how to make the most of an ÜberCharge, and he was definitely making the most of it here against the BLU Heavy. The Heavy fell rather quickly to the ÜberCharged Scout. Getting hit with the scattergun plus having his head bashed in with a bat was enough to send the BLU Heavy to the BLU Respawn. 

“That was wunderbar!” Medic cheerfully yelled out once the BLU's body was gone. “The way you bashed his head in was so quick, and efficient!”

“Just doing my job,” Scout said as he smirked.

It was nice to have his work appreciated every once in a while. Scout’s smirk quickly vanished when he saw the BLU Pyro come charging into the building ready for a fight. Since the ÜberCharge was still in affect Scout wasted no time in firing his scattergun at him. Even though he had the ÜberCharge going he still kept a bit of distance between the two of them. Getting air blasted away would accomplish nothing, and he was sure that their ÜberCharge wouldn’t last much longer. He ended up being right. The ÜberCharge fizzled out after Scout was able to land two good shots on the BLU Pyro. The second the ÜberCharge ended the BLU arsonist quickly turned to Medic, and hit him with an air blast. Medic was forced back a few feet right into the path of one of the moving saws that was built into the floor. 

Scout moved without even thinking. He was tackling Medic out of the way before a single thought entered his head. He was able to get the Medic away from the saw in time, but Scout ended up getting nicked in the arm by the sawblade. A loud yelp escaped from Scout’s mouth upon being cut so suddenly, but Medic started healing him in a matter of seconds. The chuckling of the BLU Pyro caused them both to look up only to see that the BLU mercenary was quickly approaching them. Scout quickly placed himself in between the BLU Pyro and Medic. If the BLU wanted to set Medic on fire he would have to get through Scout first. Scout’s grip on his gun tightened a little, but just when he was about to fire the sound of a single gunshot filled the air and the BLU Pyro fell to the ground dead. Medic and Scout quickly looked toward where the gunshot came from only to see Sniper standing on nearby alcove. Sniper must have used the staircase outside to get up there. Beside Sniper Scout could see Engineer quickly setting up a sentry.

“Charge!” Scout heard his team’s Soldier yell out as he entered the building with Demoman, Pyro, and Heavy following close behind him. 

Scout could not see Spy anywhere, but the man was probably already invisible and sneaking around trying to stab some BLU in the back.

“Looks like everyone finally respawned,” Scout said. 

“Ja, it looks like it.” Medic glanced over at him and smiled slightly. “Thank you for the save by the way. Dying to the sawblade isn’t pleasant.”

“I said I got your back didn’t I?” Scout said as he shrugged slightly. “Long as I’m around I won’t make it easy for the BLUs to kill you.”

Medic seemed to study Scout for a moment after he said that although there was something a bit different about the look he was giving Scout. Scout was about to ask if something was wrong, but the sound of the BLU’s own Soldier yelling out the command to move up from somewhere outside had stopped him. It looked like the BLUs who had been in Respawn had finally revived, and they were coming to try and take over the control point. 

"Mission ends in sixty seconds.”

The Administrator’s call seemed to snap Medic out of his thoughts. The man gave Scout a brief smile before he left Scout’s side to use his Medi-Gun on Heavy. Scout felt a bit sad to see Medic go. They rarely ever worked together. In fact, they didn’t really work as partners on the field at all. It felt nice to have someone fighting by his side like that. They had been doing pretty well together too surprisingly enough. So to have the moment end so soon was a bit sad. In the end Scout was able to shrug off that strange feeling of disappointment rather quickly. The enemy team running into the building trying to capture the point was a pretty good distraction. With that said even when they were all fighting Scout couldn’t help but glance over at Medic from time to time. For the most part Heavy was keeping any BLU from getting too close to Medic, and when Pyro wasn’t checking Engie’s nest for the BLU Spy he was running around Heavy and Medic spraying fire all over the place just to make sure that the BLU Spy wasn’t near them.

With that said sometimes a BLU would sneak up behind Medic and Heavy. When that happened Scout would drop everything, and race over to them and knock the BLU out. The first few times he did it Heavy always looked a bit surprised to see Scout there bashing in the head of whoever tried to threaten him and Medic. Eventually Heavy got used to Scout periodically jumping to their defense. Every time he did Heavy would shout out a quick thanks. Medic didn’t seem as surprised to see Scout always jumping in to save them from a BLU that was trying to be sneaky. He would always give Scout a grateful smile, and a nod of appreciation. To be fair though Scout had already saved Medic a couple times already, so he was already used to Scout jumping in to defend him. Every time Medic gave him a little smile and nod Scout would just nod back before jumping back into the battle. 

Eventually Medic started to pay him back for all the saves by healing him in the middle of battle. Whenever there was a moment that Heavy would be fine and no one needed any major healing Medic would heal Scout first. Even when Scout was fine Medic would hit him with the healing beam for a few seconds to give him a little bit of a healing buff. Scout would always make sure to toss out a quick ‘thanks Doc’ every time he did that. The timer kept ticking down until eventually there were only ten seconds left on the clock. They had just killed the BLU Medic, Soldier, Spy, and Demoman. They wouldn’t respawn in time to be able to do anything. As far as Scout knew the BLU Heavy, Pyro, Engineer, and Scout were in Respawn at the moment, and would probably be revived soon although at this point that probably didn't matter anymore.

Honestly, by the time they respawned it would be too late for the BLU team to do anything. The only one unaccounted for was the BLU Sniper. Scout didn’t like not knowing where the guy was. With that said there wasn’t much that a lone Sniper could against a full team of people, and only ten seconds on the clock. He could probably snipe one or two of them, but he couldn’t take them all out and try to capture the point in that short amount of time. Scout relaxed a bit at the thought that there was nothing that the BLU Sniper could do to stop this.

 _‘I’m worrying over nothing,’_ Scout thought. _‘We got this in the bag.’_

Scout smiled as he looked at everyone. Everyone looked relaxed as they stood around the point. They were still a bit on guard, but it was clear from how relaxed everyone looked that they all knew that they had achieved victory today. Scout looked over at Medic only to have his smile quickly vanish. Medic was focusing on healing up Demoman. Demoman had gotten hit by the brunt of the BLU Pyro’s Backburner fire, so he was in a bit of a rough shape. The man was completely oblivious to the little blue sniper light that was being pointed right at the back of his head. The second Scout saw that little blue dot he started running.

“Medic! Sniper aiming for ya!” Scout shouted as he ran toward the man. 

Scout was able to shove the man out of the way before the bullet could hit the Medic. Unfortunately, Scout ended up getting hit instead. It ended up being a killing blow too. At least it was a relatively quick death even if it did hurt like hell. All Scout was really aware of was blinding pain, and the look of shock on the Medic’s face as he watched Scout fall to the ground. The Administrator yelling out the RED team’s victory was the last thing Scout heard before everything faded away, and the RED Respawn took him away...

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Scout popped back up into the Respawn Room he wasn’t all that surprised to see that everyone was already in there putting their stuff away. He had heard the Administrator declare the RED team as the winner before he died. People who died right when a victor was declared, or were already in the Respawn system when a team archived victory would stay in the Respawn system until the Humiliation Round was over. It was only when the Humiliation Round was over would they finally respawn. Scout was a little disappointed that he missed the Humiliation Round. He would have loved to knock the BLU Sniper’s block off for trying to shoot Medic when the game was pretty much over for the BLU team. 

_‘Oh well,’_ Scout thought. _‘I can get my payback in the next fight.’_

No one had noticed that Scout had respawned yet. Most of them were too busy trying to shove all of their weapons back into their locker, or they were busy chattering on about the day’s battle with whoever was standing near them. As he looked around he quickly spotted Medic leaning up against the wall with his arms crossed, and an impatient frown on his face. Heavy was quietly talking to him about something although Scout couldn’t really make out what. When Medic happened to glance over at Scout a bright smile quickly appeared on his face. It was like the Medic was actually happy to see him, and for once that happiness was not because he wanted to try to talk the runner into letting Medic put some cheetah lungs in him. His smile was bright and happy, and completely void of any mad spark that suggested that he had any experiments in mind. He looked like he was actually happy to see Scout. 

“Scout!” The man cheerily said as he started to approach him. 

Medic’s call alerted the others to Scout’s presence. They were all looking at him now, but most of them were smiling. Heck, Heavy was even giving him a large happy grin like the giant man was almost as happy as Medic was at seeing him.

“Scout I really must thank you,” Medic said. “You really were the perfect guardian for me today. Thanks to you I didn’t get sent to Respawn even once today.”

Medic’s large grin softened to that gentle smile that made Scout want to smile right along with him. Scout could feel a slight blush stain his cheeks as he felt a smile work its way onto his face. 

“Ah, it isn’t a big deal.” Scout said. “I already said that I wouldn’t make it easy for a BLU to kill you. Besides beating up the BLU is what I’m good at.” 

“You did your job well,” Heavy commented. “You kept the little BLUs from preforming any sneak attacks on us. I am grateful for the help.” 

Before Heavy’s thanks could really register in Scout’s brain Soldier walked up to Scout and gave the runner a friendly slap on the back. That friendly slap on the back was strong enough to almost send Scout tumbling to the floor. 

“You did an excellent job today on the field, private!” The man yelled. “You and Doc deserve a medal for holding down the fort so well while we were dead! You even died to protect our Medic like a good private!”

Demoman nodded as he said “Aye, it’s thanks to the two of you holding down the fort so well that today’s battle ended so quickly.” 

“Surprisingly, you fought rather well with the Medic.” Spy said. 

The tone in which he said that made it hard for Scout to tell if said comment was supposed to be mocking him over the fact that he actually worked well with the Medic or not. 

Instead of trying to figure it out Scout rather bluntly asked “You mocking me?” 

“For once I’m not,” Spy answered with a slight smirk. “You did well today Scout.” 

Scout could only stare at Spy in amazement. Genuine praise from Spy happened only once in a blue moon. Scout almost hated to admit it, but getting real praise from Spy actually felt nice. Not that he would ever admit that out loud. 

Any thoughts about Spy sort of fell away when Sniper said “You did good out there, mate.”

“Yeah I was,” Scout said confidently. “I probably could have taken out that BLU Pyro just fine too, but I’m glad you sniped him. Saved me and Medic the trouble of putting him down.”

Sniper rolled his eyes a little upon hearing that, but his smile shoed that he wasn’t really all that annoyed.

“I’m sure you would have been just fine,” Sniper said as he closed his locker, and started to walk away. 

That was probably a slightly sarcastic comment, but Scout chose to ignore the sarcasm. As Sniper left Engineer and Pyro gave their own words of praise for keeping control of the point while everyone had been in respawn. Well, Engie had given words of praise at the very least. 

Pyro had just hugged Scout and Medic while cheerfully saying something that vaguely sounded like “Good job!” 

Honestly, getting all of this praise from everyone on the team in one day was a little overwhelming. It also made Scout feel like he was on top of the world. Scout was probably grinning like an idiot at that moment, but he didn’t care. He was probably going to be riding this high for the rest of the day. He was about to follow everyone back to the base, but before he could take a single step Medic placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

“Scout, do you have a moment?” Medic asked. “There are some things I wish to discuss with you.” 

Scout glanced over at the Medic in confusion. What did they really need to talk about? 

_‘Well, only one way to find out,’_ Scout thought. 

“Sure, I can talk. What’s up Doc?” 

Medic smiled a bit as removed his hand from Scout’s shoulder and took a step back. The man paused for a second as if he was thinking of how he should start his conversation. After a minute had passed Medic finally started talking.

“It’s rare that I ever go one match without being sent to Respawn even once,” The man said. “I’m grateful that you saved me and prevented me from being sent to Respawn, but I have to admit I was rather surprised when you pushed me out of the way of the BLU Sniper’s bullet. The match was pretty much over. You didn’t have to do that.”

Scout shrugged a little as he said “When I saw that the Sniper was aiming for you I just started running. All I was thinking about was the fact that I had to get you out of the line of fire.”

“And by doing so you ended up dying in my place,” Medic said softly. 

Scout shrugged again as he said “It’s not that big of a deal. Respawn brings us right back to life good as new, so its fine.”

“I suppose that is true,” Medic said. “With that said most people would have just shouted out a warning. Most people wouldn’t have dived into the line of fire like that to save me even with Respawn.”

“What? No one has dramatically saved you from being headshot by a Sniper yet?” Scout joked. 

Medic chuckled a little upon hearing that. It wasn’t the typical high pitched laugh that Scout usually heard from him either. It was softer and deeper. It was almost soothing sounding really. 

Of course as soon as Scout started to mentally question how he could find Medic’s laugh soothing he heard Medic say “I have been saved plenty of times by our other teammates. Yet, never before has anyone sacrificed themselves to save me when it really wasn’t required. The battle was basically over, so it didn’t matter if I died. Respawn would bring me back. Most wouldn’t bother to go through the Respawn System in that case.”

All Scout could really do was shrug yet again. Medic had a point. There really was no real point to saving Medic at that moment. He would have been just fine in the end, and the match was won so there were no worries there. With that said none of those things came to mind when Scout went to save him. The only thing that registered in Scout’s head at that moment was the fact that Medic was in danger, and he had to do something to save him. 

“Yeah. Well, I guess I’m special like that.” Scout said.

Medic smiled softly as he said “Yes, over these past few days I have started to notice that. It’s almost a shame that I didn’t notice sooner.”

Scout blinked a few times in surprise upon hearing that. The way Medic said that made it sound like he was saying Scout was special for more reasons than just Scout’s automatic response to toss caution to the wind in order to save Medic’s life.

Medic quickly moved the conversation along as he said “In fact I am starting to think it is a bit of a shame that we don’t interact more on the battlefield.”

Scout couldn’t argue against that. They had almost nothing to do with each other on the battlefield. They didn’t exactly avoid each other per say. They just never really looked toward each other for help in battle for, well, much of anything really. If Scout needed healing he tended to just run for the nearest health kit, or he would rush off to wherever Engineer had set up his dispenser. If the battlefield was small enough Scout could usually run back to the Respawn Room, heal up there, and then run back to the fight before anyone noticed he was gone. It was just quicker to run off for a health kit then it was to try and hunt down the Medic. He would call for the Doc’s help if he was in a really bad shape, but he would only do that when he physically couldn’t run off to the nearest dispenser. 

As for Medic Scout could probably come up with a large number of reasons why Scout wasn’t exactly high on the list of people to turn to for a fighting partner on the field. Scout’s rather aggressive fighting style meant that he usually couldn’t really defend someone very well, and truthfully Scout just didn’t have the weapons needed to take out large clusters of enemies the way Demoman or Soldier could. Quite frankly their fighting styles didn’t mesh well enough together to make frequent partnerships on the battlefield worth it. With that said that didn’t mean that Medic and Scout couldn’t start watching over each other a bit more. There were still things they could do for each other to make life on the battlefield a bit easier.

“What are you suggesting?” Scout asked slowly.

“I think it would benefit both of us greatly if we started to work a bit more together on the field,” Medic said. “We work together in battle sometimes, but I’m starting to think that we don’t work together as much as we should. I know that you tend to not call for me often on the field, or really at all for that matter. You know you can rely on me. If you call for me I will heal you.”

The Medic’s soft smile took on a slightly sharp edge as he said “Just don’t abuse it. Don’t go calling me for the whole match, and realize that sometimes I’ll need to prioritize some of our other teammates over you.” 

Scout heard the warning there loud and clear.

“Hey, this won’t be a one-sided partnership here.” Scout quickly said. “I can do plenty on the field for you as well. I know when you got that healing beam on me you get a speed boost so that you can keep up with me. We use it right I could always help you get wherever you need to go quick as a flash, or if you have some idea for a fight that involves you needing to be as fast as me I’ll help you out with it no problem.” 

“Going to be my own personal transportation, hm?” Medic questioned. “If I can’t use one of Engineer’s teleporters I can just call you up to get me where I need to go?”

“Yep,” Scout confirmed. “I can be your own personal Scout taxi service. Ring me up, and I’ll take you wherever you need to be.”

The taxi service comment got a small laugh out of Medic which caused Scout to feel rather proud of himself for getting the man to laugh like that. It was honestly a shame that Scout didn’t hear that deep soft laugh more often.

“I might take you up on that offer,” Medic said. “I’m sure that by working together a bit more on the battlefield we will figure out other ways that we can help each other out. Until then I can at least promise that I’ll watch your back a bit more often on the battlefield.”

“And I’ll do the same,” Scout said. “Who knows? Maybe with me keeping a closer eye on ya’ you and Heavy won’t get stabbed in the back as often by that stupid BLU Spy.”

Medic’s lips twitched up into a small smile as he said “Who knows? If we start watching over each other a bit more often backstabs from the BLU Spy might go down a lot more.”

The man’s smile grew a bit darker as he said “I know I wouldn’t mind making the BLU Spy’s life a lot harder.”

As quick at the dark look came it vanished to be replaced by Medic’s softer look.

“Well, that is all I wanted to talk about.” Medic said. “I must get back to the infirmary. I have to check on your cardinal, and I have a few experiments I wanted to work on a little before dinner. I’ll see you later Scout.” 

With those words said Medic gave Scout a farewell wave before he finally started to leave. As Scout watched the Medic walk away he was all too aware of the fact that his relationship with Medic was quickly changing. Up till Scout took the bird to Medic the two of them had rarely interacted. They didn’t really talk much, they didn’t hang out with each other, and they didn’t really fight together much. They were really distant coworkers at best. Yet, today they had fought together. Today Medic thanked him multiple times, and even said that Scout was special in a way that made it clear that he thought something about Scout was worth admiring. Today the man had promised to watch Scout’s back more often on the battlefield, and Scout had promised to do the same for him. 

It felt like they were moving away from being distant coworkers, and they were actually starting to become friends of all things. It was a little strange honestly. Scout has sort of avoided Medic most of the time. The unfortunate incident with Archimedes kept Scout out of Medic’s infirmary where Medic spent most of his time. Also, truthfully Scout wanted to avoid getting tangled up with any experiments that would end with him missing a kidney and suddenly having an extra pair of lungs. Avoiding the infirmary usually meant avoiding getting involved in some of Medic's crazier experiments. When you got right down to it they just didn’t interact much in the base, and they didn’t interact much on the battlefield either. 

Yet, today Scout had been roped into probably having to visit Medic’s infirmary for the next couple of days to help feed the birds. Then he and Medic made that little promise for future battles. Things between them were starting to change. The sudden shift from not having much to do with each other to suddenly growing to become friends felt odd if Scout was being honest. He honestly never thought he and Medic would become close in any sort of way. He figured they would always remain distant coworkers. With that said some part of Scout didn’t really mind this sudden change in their relationship. Some part of him was actually a bit happy at the idea of getting to actually know the Medic a bit better. Some tiny part of him wanted to see more of Medic’s soft smiles, and wanted to hear more of those soothing gentle laughs. Some part of him wanted to impress Medic with his skills on the battlefield. The fact that he wanted all of these things only served to confuse Scout even more. Scout sighed as he shook his head, and slowly started to make his way back to the base. 

Who knew finding an injured bird could cause all of this?


End file.
